Sprouts are now being fingered as the culprit in food contamination outbreaks on both sides of the Atlantic.

In this country, as USA Today reports, authorities say that salmonella linked to alfalfa sprouts has sickened 21 people in five states since April 12, sending three people to the hospital.

Europe has struggled in recent weeks with a separate, unrelated outbreak of E. Coli that originated in Germany and is blamed for 48 deaths and more than 3,800 illnesses. Officials there blame tainted vegetable sprouts and shoots from an organic farm near Hamburg, says Reuters.

The U.S. contamination case is thought to stem from alfalfa and spicy sprouts, a mix of alfalfa, clover and radish, from Evergreen Produce in Moyie Springs, Idaho. The Food and Drug Administration has warned against eating sprouts from the producer, although Evergreen’s owner says the agency has “absolutely no documentation” to back its contention.

Salmonella cases tied by federal authorities to Evergreen have been reported in Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, New Jersey and Washington state.

According to the FDA, people who get salmonella can suffer diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after exposure and can be sick four to seven days. While most people recover without treatment, in rare cases salmonella is deadly.

The FDA said that sprouts repeatedly have been a source of food-borne illnesses. Since 1996, FDA has linked at least 30 outbreaks, mostly of salmonella and E. coli, to raw and lightly cooked sprouts.

As a British public health expert told Reuters earlier this week, “I know a lot of people like raw sprouting seeds, but if you want them then you’ve got to decide whether or not you’re prepared to take the risk.”

U.S. labor investigators recovered $240.8 million in back wages for American workers last year amid an intensified crackdown on pay abuses in low-skill industries.

That newly released total – which reflects the amount of back wages that employers agreed to pay, or were ordered to pay, following government investigations – amounted to $890 per affected worker.

However, a recent report prepared for the Labor Department suggests that the back wage recoveries only scratch the surface of what underpaid workers actually are owed.

The report by Eastern Research Group, issued in December, estimated that in California and New York alone, minimum wage violations in 2011 cost workers at least $32.7 million a week—or about $1.7 billion a year. At least 50,000 families in the two states suffered income losses due to minimum wage violations, and at least 14,800 families were brought below the poverty level, the report found.

An attempted crackdown on wage and hour violations on two Oregon berry farms has ended in a retreat by the U.S. Labor Department, which dropped all charges against two growers it had accused of failing to pay the minimum wage to about 1,000 workers.

The case has brought scrutiny to one of the Labor Department’s most potent weapons—the “hot goods” provision of federal law that allows it to halt the interstate shipment of goods produced in violation of wage laws. It is often used to fight alleged wage theft in the garment industry, among others.

With an estimated $5.5 million dollars worth of highly perishable blueberries on the line, the Oregon farms–Pan American Berry Growers and B&G Ditchen LLC–were threatened with a court order during their 2012 harvest. It would have barred them from shipping their produce unless they paid back

A father and his 2-year-old son at a gun rights demonstration last March in Austin, Texas (Photo by Erika Rich)

After being thwarted in Congress following the 2012 school shooting rampage in Newtown, Conn., gun control activists have scored some important victories in states around the country.

One of the biggest wins came in Washington State. In November, voters by a wide margin approved a state ballot measure extending, to gun shows and other private firearms transactions, a requirement for buyer background checks.

But which side has the momentum in the struggle around the nation pitting advocates of tighter controls against supporters of expanded gun rights? That remains a tough call.

With the clash now a state-by-state fight, the dueling camps make competing claims about who has gained ground and who figures to fare better in the years immediately ahead.